The European Tour has ripped up the method by which it selects the Ryder Cup
captain in response to the unseemly lobbying and bickering before Paul
McGinley was appointed this year.

A five-man committee comprising the three immediate past captains, the Tour’s chief executive and a representative of the players’ committee will now make the choice.

That means McGinley – together with Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie – will have a big say in the identity of his successor when Europe’s captain for the 2016 match in Minneapolis is picked, in January 2015.

The overhaul was long overdue, even though Europe have lost only one match this century. The 15 players on the Tournament Committee would choose the captain as part of a normal committee meeting at an event at the start of the year.

With no “official” candidates, the decision was made “on the hoof”. It was a disorganised system which was ridiculous considering the multi-million pound importance of the Ryder Cup to the Tour. Inevitably, it led to infighting and suspicions of deals being struck.

This was seen in its full tawdry nature in the run-up to the selection for next year’s match in Gleneagles.

Darren Clarke and McGinley were pitched against each other in the media months before the choice was made with whispers of broken agreements. When Clarke pulled out of the race, a few days before the meeting, there was a sudden drive to reappoint Montgomerie as captain.

Rory McIlroy and other current players then entered the debate and it was their backing which was deemed critical in McGinley’s success.

It was an unedifying spectacle, with Ian Woosnam, the 2006 captain, leading the calls for reformation. Woosnam’s point was that there were, and would continue to be, “too many players on the committee wanting the job” and that would affect their decision which way to vote. He proposed that a panel of past captains be handed the responsibility.

Richard Hills, the Tour’s Ryder Cup director, explained the reasons for this modernisation. “The job of Ryder Cup captain is an ever expanding and ever-demanding role," he said.

"And I think this decision perfectly focuses the three vital ingredients required in any selection process: the immediate experience of the three past captains... the chief executive of the European Tour, which outlines the wide-ranging political and practical requirements... and the tournament committee representative who will canvass his colleagues on tour.”